The world's largest aerospace company faces a multi-million dollar lawsuit in an Illinois court following the recent plane crash in Thailand that killed 90 passengers, including 54 foreigners.

The Nation, Bangkok's independent newspaper, reported on Saturday that U.S. lawyers had filed the first of several cases against the Chicago-based aircraft maker on behalf of Thai victim Parinyawit Choosaeng.

Parinyawit suffered burn injuries after a McDonnel Douglas MD-82 jet of Thai budget carrier One-Two-Go broke into flames on the island of Phuket on Sept. 16.

More than 100 survivors and victims' relatives have given authority to two American lawyers to represent them to claim damages from Boeing, which took over plane maker McDonnel Douglas Corporation in 1997.

The complainant, filed in the Cook County Circuit Court, wants the court to order the defendant company to release immediately to the families all relevant evidence on the design and manufacturing records of the accident aircraft including maintenance records.

"The lawsuits must be filed shortly after the accident to preserve evidence so it would not disappear," lawyer Manuel von Ribbeck told a press conference on Friday. He added that each lawsuit could seek compensation of several million dollars.

Ribbeck said each legal action would be filed individually in accordance with the losses and damages each family had suffered. He added that compensation would cover both physical and psychological injuries and how much more medical intention they would need.

Von Ribbeck said his team had collaborated with Thai law firms in Bangkok and Phuket for possible legal action against other parties, including the airline.

The MD-82 model had crashed 13 times including the Thai crash in which citizens from France, Iran, Britain, Israel, the United States, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Australia and Indonesia were among the dead.

The plane broke in flames after it hit an embankment while landing in heavy rain on Phuket.

According to the Thai aviation department, flight data recorders or black boxes are due to arrive back in Thailand over the weekend, following analysis in the United States to help determine the cause of the crash.

"It is important to learn the cause of these terrible plane crashes to avoid similar accidents from happening again in the future, to save lives," Parinyawit said.

Although the findings of U.S. investigators have not been released, it was earlier reported that the bad weather was one of the major causes of the accident. Probers are likewise not discounting the age of the aircraft, possible mechanical problems and pilot error.

Did that specific airplane crash 13 times or a total of 13 MD82s crash ?
If a total of 13 MD82s have gone down thats peanuts to the amount of other aircraft types that have crashed.
Alot more B727/B737/B747 (etc/etc) - have gone down than 13 for each type. So why are they scrutinizing the MD80s

Sue first, ask questions later. Include everyone even remotely connected with the accident, and then sort it out later. In the end, we all up paying higher prices for everything, as everyone has to cover their derriers when lawsuits like this happen.

It is sad to see the legitimate grief turn to misdirected anger and those who feed upon it profit from it. If there is "blame" to be assigned, it can only be determined after a thorough investigation - not until then. I wish people realized that.

I believe that the aircraft involved was over 20 years old. How can a manufacturer ensure that the owners have maintained it properly or even that the operators properly trained their crews to operate the aircraft. If my car was involved in a crash, I would not sue the maker unless the crash was caused by a specific fault with the car, but as my car is over 5 years old, I think the manufacturer would laugh if I crashed and sued them, and rightly so.

Unfortunately, this is a common practice over here. The only winners are the lawyers, hence they do what they do best. As has previously been said, the loosers are the common folk when they are let go because companies cannot afford to pay product liability insurances, or cannot even get cover. Although this accident sounds like weather, can't see God being named in the law suit!!! I would suggest we put higher insurance levies on Lawyers based on the same Product liability manufacturers have, then lets see how many stupid cases they chase!

Quoting Super98 (Reply 6):They will uncover some very uncomplimentary things about that airline and its crew if they proceed. And Boeing will be exonerated completely.

Which is probably not a bad thing.

1-2-Go is one of the shonkiest airlines I've flown (8 flights with them) and one of the only airlines I haven't felt comfortable with getting on their aircraft at times. (Air Asia being another, I'm sad to say).

Ok, I'm sure that Air Asia maintain their planes to a specified and required standard, but you know "that feeling" when you get on an aircraft and something's just not right. Hard to explain and put my finger on, but just a vibe I have had (rarely) at certain times.

Sorry - getting off topic here, but if there's uncomplimentary things to find out about the airline and crew, then so be it. Let's do it an improve standards.

Quoting Pilotboi (Reply 1):Geez people (the survivors and familes), why can't we just let the NTSB do their job and get back to us once they find out what happened. Sad.

I'm not sure you should blame the the survivors and relatives. I think that you should blame US law firms. Since it happened to be a plane "made in the USA", then they see a business opportunity in combination with the US "jackpot justice system".

Hours after that tragic accident a minor army of dozens of US lawyers were sitting on planes to the Far East to hunt down survivors and families. With documents in their briefcase, or in their laptop plus portable printer.

"Sign here, it doesn't cost a cent, you get 50% of any income, you do nothing, we do everything, if we win $1,000 you get 500, and here you write your bank account number". (with small letters: "income" = profit after bribing the judge, travel expenses, and other directly related expenses such as office rent and cleaning).

And in the end it will be settled out of court with a total, secret amount so small that Boeing finds it cheaper to settle than continue to have their lawyers fight their defence.

Quoting Bx737 (Reply 9):but as my car is over 5 years old, I think the manufacturer would laugh if I crashed and sued them, and rightly so.

Not in the US. A lawyer friend of mine once said, "any idiot with a typewriter can start a lawsuit." It is unfortunately true, and until we follow the rest of the civilized world and have penalties (such as loser pays the winner's legal costs) it will continue. With contingency fees there is little downside to suing for the most ridiculous things, and enough of them win for lawyers to keep at it, and judges are way too reluctant to throw them out. I think part of the problem is that way too many legislators are lawyers. I want to put in a constitutional amendment that says that anyone who has ever passed a bar exam will henceforth be forever barred from elective office as an inherent conflict of interest.

The problem with making things foolproof is that fools are so doggone ingenious...Dan Keebler

The engine manufacturers will be sued, the instrument manufacturers, the companies who made the interior fabrics - all will be sued because they should have done a better job to prevent the crash/ prevent damage, injuries and fire after the crash.

Heck the tire manufacturer will probably be sued.

Then we get into the air and Thai corporations including the ATC system.

Quoting Prebennorholm (Reply 13):I'm not sure you should blame the the survivors and relatives. I think that you should blame US law firms.

No, you should blame US *law*.

There are both practical and legal limitations on the amount of time you have to file a liability lawsuit. The earlier, the better. Given that most accident investigations take years to complete, it's not in a victims' best interests to wait. And think about it - their best interests are all they care about, not the airline's or the manufacturer's. They're the ones who were injured, those injuries were caused by something out of their control, and more likely than not it was either the airline or the manufacturer that was at fault. (It almost always is; accidents don't just happen by chance.)

Let's say you were in an accident and you ended up with third degree burns over half your body and you lose an arm. Are you going to just sit there and do nothing because you feel a sense of charity to Boeing? What if it comes out 5 years later in the accident report that the crash occurred due to a faulty repair by Boeing? Are you really going to wait that long as your medical bills pile up and insurance companies refuse to insure you for less than $10,000 a month?

I'm tired of being a wanna-be league bowler. I wanna be a league bowler!

Yet another lawsuit that'll likely go nowhere. It's going to be tough to nail Boeing on this as the MD-82 doesn't exactly have a shaky track record. Investigate the airline and maintenance procedures; AA, SK, AZ and YX all fly hundreds of 'em daily. If a design flaw existed, it'dve been found out long long long ago IMO. One nice thing about airliners vs. car manufacturers; approvals are much much harder to get and designs subject to intense scrutiny. I hope the bastards are on contingency and get what they deserve; nothing more than huge costs rung up trying the case.

Quoting Prebennorholm (Reply 13):"Sign here, it doesn't cost a cent, you get 50% of any income, you do nothing, we do everything, if we win $1,000 you get 500, and here you write your bank account number". (with small letters: "income" = profit after bribing the judge, travel expenses, and other directly related expenses such as office rent and cleaning).

And in the end it will be settled out of court with a total, secret amount so small that Boeing finds it cheaper to settle than continue to have their lawyers fight their defence.

You are exaggertating. It is very difficult to bribe judges, even in Cook County (Chicago), Illinois with a highly corrupt history and if caught could go to jail. The real problem is the jury as they tend to encouaged by the Plaintiff's attonreys in such matters to go for huge judgements against deep pockets, like Boeing. Boeing is a 'deep pocket' with a lot more $$$'s than probably the airline had in insurance to pay out.

Y'all are getting a little heavy on the lawyer hate here. Hate the tort system, not the lawyers. Blaming all lawyers for the (rational under our system, by the way) actions of a few is just like saying "All aircraft mx personnel are scum" because 1-2-Go cut one too many corners. (Not saying the cause is bad mx, just giving an example.)

Remember, lawyers will also be the ones ensuring that Boeing doesn't have to pay as a result of these suits...

I'll agree that we should look into adopting the English system, at least in products liability cases. (In most cases, loser would pay winner's attorneys' fees.)

Quoting TruemanQLD (Reply 14):If Boeing was in any way at fault, sue them and then they will make sure they never let it happen again! Good on them, I knew one of the Australians daughters. RIP

Well in reality Boeing is in no way responsible. They had no part in designing or building the aircraft. Sure they took on the responsibilty, but they're not to blame if they never built the thing.

There has been no investigation finished. This is like Air France. Weather related accident and everyone wants to sue becuase the airlines have so much control over the weather. Let alone the manufaturer. Given the airlines track record, I would be surprised if maintenance was to blame. At the end of the day, sue the airline for pilot error. He should have made the decision to go around earlier...

25 2175301
: I agree with the concept of tort reform. I am not in total agreement with the loser pays all legal fees though. There is a range of classes of lawsuit

26 Bok269
: I am very sorry to hear of your loss. At this point in the investigation, it is way too early to tell who was at fault. Given the state of many low c

27 Pilotboi
: I'm pretty sure I read something that said that they were askign the NTSB to help them and basically head the investigation. Perhaps it was just a su

28 FlyingAY
: This is actually not true. Boeing of these days includes also the former McDonnell-Douglas, so yes, they built the thing, although the plane wasn't c

29 Zeke
: From the current FAA Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS) Below is my opinion, I am not a lawyer, so don't take it as fact !! .... This is the same TCD

30 Boeingluvr
: Okay okay... Yes it does. But Boeing did not actually have involvment in theb design and production of the a/c before the bought out Douglas.

31 Scbriml
: Make your mind up! Boeing is responsible, they took over MD and everything that goes with it. Say a design fault is discovered on the MD-80, who woul